In the dead of the night, two figures were slowly making their way through the corridors of Hogwarts trying to make as little noise as they could as they sneaked to the Astronomy Tower which was the highest in the school and also out of bounds. They slowly descended the stairs to reach the top of the tower only to find two silhouettes prominent against the moonlight. Their faces not recognizable.
"Lumos." James whispered as light appeared and he was satisfied with what he saw. The light from his wand fell upon two redheads who had features so alike that they had to be twins.
"Thank God you are both finally here. We were starting to suspect that Filch caught you." One of them spoke.
"After all this time Gideon, you of all the people should know that we don't get caught." Sirius replied smirking.
"Yeah and the detentions you do for Filch are your way of expressing your undying love for him." The redhead retorted as even James sniggered at the picture of Sirius confessing to the sour caretaker.
Sirius muttered,"traitor" under his breath.
"Alright boys. Back to business." James said in an authoritative voice as all of them staightened, "We are here to decide the terms and conditions of our truce, our planning for the year and most importantly, how to make life of Slytherins hell."
"You mean more hell than usual?" The other redhead asked.
"Yes Fabian. After all, the Gryffindor pranksters have joined forces." James replied smirking.
"Yeah, this year Hogwarts won't know what hit it." Sirius added smirking evily.
"Prepare for the chaos that will be unleashed upon you." Gideon told the walls patting them for the effect.
For the past four years, there were four pranksters that had been roaming the halls of Hogwarts. There had always been a competition among them; each trying to best the other in the art of pranking. And as a side effect making life of others hell. However at the end of last year, the competitors became companions; foes turned into friends.
The courtesy goes to the Slytherins who unwisely took up a fight with James and Sirius who were outnumbered until the Prewett twins came along and obviously took side of fellow Gryffindors. The four ended up sending the Slytherins to the Hospital Wing and themselves were sent to the Forbidden Forest for detention by a very red Professor McGonagall who Sirius personally thought could easily be mistaken for a tomato.
By the time a month of detentions had ended, which had involved capturing certain creatures for Professor Kettleburn, cleaning the trophy room and sorting potions store among other things, the four had come to an understanding.
Their friendship had, however, cost Gryffindor the house cup since Professor McGonagall hadn't appreciated much the display of their knowledge of jinxes and hexes on Slytherins and had taken fifty points a piece. According to her they had not only jinxed fellow students but were out after curfew in the out of bounds area. Sirius still suspected that she was secretlyproud of them.
The incident with Slytherins, sausages and snakes was just them trying some new spells the four had been working on over the summer. In their defence, they were supposed to learn magic and hence they were just practicing it.
The morning after their meeting, James woke up feeling cold and wet. His brain took a moment to register the fact that he was completely drenched in cold water. He stood up cursing whoever did that and looked to find the dormitory empty except for a wet Sirius sleeping on the floor. James would bet anything that Remus and Frank were behind this but they were no where to be found. Checking the time he realized that they were very late. He kicked Sirius while going to the bathroom.
The two of them got ready as fast as they could and hurried towards their first class that was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Since the Professor was new this year, both of them had no idea how strict he was. Well they had a little bit idea thanks to Hogwarts' grapevine.
Sirius prepared himself as James pushed open the door of the classroom. Professor Hamilton Hayman was standing at the front of the class as he stopped mid sentence to glare at them. He was quite old. Though not as old as Dumbledore.
"Sorry Profe-" was all James managed to get out before he was interrupted.
"Out" Hayman said in a calm voice as he stared at them in the eye.
When neither Sirius nor James moved he continued in an intimidating tone, "If you can't bother to come to my class on time, you might as well not come at all."
The statement was apparently directed at them but the whole class shook. A few Hufflepuffs looked scared to death. Sirius and James shared a look before they silently moved out closing the door behind them.
"Were we just kicked out?" Sirius asked once they were out.
"What do you think?" James answered sarcastically.
"Great. Now we can eat breakfast." Sirius said enthusiastically ignoring James' question.
"We woke up drenched in cold water, got late on our second day, were kicked out of class and what you care about is breakfast?" James asked him skeptically.
"Come on Prongs," Sirius said shrugging as he walked down the corridor, "Unless you'd rather stay hungry till lunch."
James huffed in annoyance as he followed his friend to the kitchens.
When the sound of bell reached their ears both made their way to the dungeons where the double potions class was supposed to be held. As expected they were early and the classroom was mostly empty. They took their seats at the back of the class as students started filling the room.
"Hey" Remus greeted them followed by Frank as both took the seats in their front.
"You are both so dead." A glaring James told them.
"Why? What happened?" Remus asked innocently.
"Oh besides the fact that we woke up like we had taken a swim in the Black Lake, nothing happened." Sirius answered nonchalantly.
"Why would anyone take a swim in the Black Lake in the morning?" Frank asked breaking all records of acting.
"How did you do it?" James asked ignoring Frank's question, curiosity apparent in his tone.
"How did we do what?" Remus asked insistent at feigning innocence.
"The spell obviously. You both weren't in the dormitory when we were given a shower and were obviously long gone." James said rolling his eyes at the end as Remus smirked.
"It was a delayed charm. You both weren't waking up so I casted it. Clearly it did not go as I expected since I delayed it too much. I am still trying to perfect it." Remus explained.
"That is awesome." Sirius added after a moment, "But that doesn't mean we are letting you get away with that easily."
"So, how was DADA?" James asked changing the topic.
But at that moment Professor Slughorn chose to enter the classroom. Frank mouthed 'later' to which James nodded.
"Looks like we have new addition to our class." Slughorn looked at the Hale cousins as if sizing them up. James noticed that Isadora looked uncomfortable under the Professor's scrutiny but her cousin Lina who looked like a boy was still wearing that signature blank expression of hers. A part of him was still embarrassed about what had happened on the train.
"Lets begin with a simple wide eye potion. It will help determine how much you actually remember from the previous year. Since at the end of this year, you will be giving OWLs, not only do we have to learn new things but we also have to revise our prev-"
After that James zoned out since he was not least interested in hearing the same thing he had to hear five times the previous day. Maybe a wide eye potion will not be such a bad idea.
"-pect you to work hard and pay attention. Now hurry up and begin the potion."
James and Sirius had to brew a lot of this potion the previous year due to certain academic purposes. Hence, they were finished quite early. But they were not the only ones. Snape was also done. So were the Hale cousins who were both talking quietly as Slughorn moved around the class. James scooted his chair a bit towards them. He was not eavesdropping. He was merely curious. When he could still not hear clearly, he silently casted a spell on their table ignoring the look Sirius sent him.
"- could know. I don't trust him. Nor should you." Lina was muttering.
"Ro, Dumbledore knows what he is doing. We should leave it to him." Isadora argued.
"Look Do, I cannot think of one innocent reason behind using legilimency on students." She stopped abruptly. James had a feeling she knew someone was listening but she continued, "And I am just asking you to be careful."
Before James had time to hear Isadora's reply, Slughorn was at Remus and Frank's table inspecting their potion. He quickly cancelled the eavesdropping spell which was an invention of his and Sirius'. Slughorn turned to check the cousins' potion.
"Perfect" he beamed at both of them reestimating their caliber. By the looks of it, he was impressed with their potion-making skills.
Their next period was free after which they had lunch. The four went outside to sit near the lake where Remus and Frank filled them in on what happened in DADA. According to them the Professor Hayman was strict.
"You think." Sirius muttered.
Professor Hayman had assigned them an essay to write on the tactics Grindelwald had used to rise to power. They had to submit it on Tuesday. Remus and Frank got up to go inside. James was about to get up as well when Sirius stopped him.
"What did you hear?" Sirius asked impatiently.
James took a moment to register what Sirius was talking about before he finally filled him in.
"What's legilimency?" Sirius asked after James was done.
"Don't know, do I?" James replied, "We'll have to search it up."
"Or ask Moony." Sirius ginned.
They were free till evening when they had double Herbology. James knew that Professor Sprout will also give them a lecture on importance of OWLs before carrying on with Devil's Snare.